Cheryl Lynn isn't quite sure who she is, but she's pretty sure of what she wants to be. A warrior woman. A bad-ass mamajama. Perhaps an earth goddess extraordinaire. She spends her days abusing keyboards and screaming at computer screens while she waits for her cult following to finally show up.

She changes her mind more often than extras in rap videos change thongs.

Remember: save to your own server, sweets!

Reading SELF Magazine.

Writing To-Do lists.

Hearing Thunder.

Watching General Hospital.

Building Nothing.

Eating Vitamins.

Drinking Iced Tea.

Buying Comic books.

Thinking "It is HOT!"

Playing Episodes from Liberty City.

Adoring Cold water.

Saying Very little.

Abhorring Bigotry.

Feeling Calm.

Hoping To get in gear.

Diva.

There is nothing wrong with the Marvel Divas miniseries. The comics haven't even been released yet! How could there be anything to find fault with? Let's cut the creative team a little bit of slack here, folks.



There is also nothing wrong with the Marvel Divas teaser art. I've always said that there is room for everything in comics. Yes, everything! If FOX had no problem airing V.I.P., then Marvel can certainly publish Marvel Divas with that art as the first cover. There is an audience out there for this stuff, after all. And Marvel is in the business of selling comics, right? And as long as I have no problem finding books like Millennia War and webcomics like Bayou that feature protagonists that I adore, I'm certainly not going to put a guy through the wringer if he wants a little 2-D cheesecake starring the Black Cat. Live and let live! Enjoy your time with Felicia, dude!

That said, there is something completely wrong with the way Marvel Divas is being promoted. Look, as I've said on this blog countless times, a product should be what it is advertised to be.

"The idea behind the series was to have some sudsy fun and lift the curtain a bit and take a peep at some of our most fabulous super heroines...The pitch started as "Sex and the City" in the Marvel Universe, and there's definitely that "naughty" element to it..."

Well, there you go! Thank you, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa! And you know what? I can think of a few guys who would actually dig this book. I can't think of any women, but I hang out with nerds and tough chicks who shop at Joyce Leslie instead of rich white women in their mid-forties who are obsessed with couture and randy businessmen. Our shoes don't have elaborate names. Our grandmothers and RP characters do.

"...but I also think the series is going to a deeper place, asking question about what it means...truly means...to be a woman in an industry dominated by testosterone and guns. (And I mean both the super hero industry and the comic book industry.) But mostly it's just a lot of hot fun."

What it truly means to be a woman in a male-dominated field? With an all-male creative team? And art designed to titillate the predominately male T&A crowd? Who do you think you're fooling? Because no one is buying that. No one. In fact, I'm insulted by that. Was that tacked on at the last minute in some desperate attempt to pander to women in order to get them to buy a book that isn't even geared towards the majority of them? Or was it designed to anger female comic readers enough so they would complain publicly and Marvel Divas could get some additional promotion throughout the comics blogosphere? If it is the latter? Hey, congratulations and good luck. Seriously. Turning negative attention into positive sales is hard. You don't see Heroes for Hire on the shelves anymore.

Anyway, Marvel Divas isn't for me. But guess what? Not everything has to be for me in order to be acceptable or successful. I just wish that Marvel could have been honest about the intended audience of the series and the actual product.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and order the fifth volume of Empowered!

ETA: Quote fixed! Thanks, Pedro!

ETA 2: If that is what he really intended...well...I want to buy a series written by a guy on how hard it is to be a woman in a male dominated world about as much as I want to buy my oil sheen from a non-black owned "black" beauty supply store.

Cheryl Lynn @ 10:06 PM EST Link